“There is great satisfaction in reaching the next round of the Coppa Italia as this is a compeition that we hold a lot of value in,” commented the captain on his website after the result.

“Especially, it must be said, as the victory over Atalanta was clear and clean, we find that everyone here is ready and I believe that the road we are on is the right one.”

Alessio Romagnoli was handed his first team debut by Zdenek Zeman, at the age of 17.

“I usually prefer to speak of the collective, but this time I would like to congratulate in particular Romagnoli, because it was his debut. He was very good and always lucid. Tomorrow, we focus our minds totally on Chievo, as Sunday is not that far away.”